NOM, DARLINGHURST A hole in the wall Japanese Izakaya that I probably wouldn’t tell you about if I lived in Sydney for fear of not being able to get a seat. Run by a mother and daughter team from Tokyo and frequented by Japanese locals – its as authentic as you can get.

THE COMMONS, DARLINGHURST The kind of spot you can hit on a warm Sunday afternoon and stay well into the night grazing on charcuterie, calamari and chardonnay. You won’t know where the time went once it’s time to head downstairs into the basement bar